Chapter 258 – Buy 3 pay 1 deal
“Make a deal?” Asked Noah, watching her intently. “What do you have in mind?”
“Your concern right now is that you don’t have any idea what your system does behind your back, in the background so-to-say. Do you agree?” Said Yuko.
Noah crossed his hands silently, listening to what she had to say.
“If you had someone with an authority to peer into processes that this plush bastard does, evaluate them and report to you on his every move immediately, while marking our every process that is somehow strange or abnormal, that would solve your concern right?” Offered Yuko.
Noah raised his eyebrow.
“So the deal I offer you is to make me a task manager of your system. Let me manage this little weasel for you.”
Ugy started to thrash on the ground, trying to say something but Yuko pressed his head harder into the ground, making him eat the mud.
“Even if I agreed, I don’t know how to do something like that. What you suggest needs serious intervention in the code of the system itself. If I knew how to do it, I would never have a problem with it in the first place.” Said Noah sceptically. “And I doubt Ugy would comply in doing it even if I ordered him. No doubt he’ll just put a lot of loopholes to fool us again.”
“I know. But…” Said Yuko, stroking the back of a small butterfly sitting on her shoulder. “We have someone else who could do it for us. If you release her, she agrees to help.”
“You want me to release that crazy…whatever the fuck it is, and trust her to touch my system? I don’t trust any of you nightmares near me, especially after hearing what you all truly are.” Said Noah.
“A djinn. That’s what she is. And yes she is fucking mad. Just like any nightmare.” Said Yuko smiling with a craze in her eyes.
“And, yes, we nightmares are initially parts of big dark concepts made to corrupt and destroy the worlds. But…if you listened to me carefully, I said that some worlds turn these concepts into less harmful forms, like making us part of stories and giving us individuality and character. Making us more logical, reasonable and lovable.” Said Yuko.
Noah opened his mouth to say something but Yuko raised her hand stopping him as she was not finished.
“I don’t try to convince you that we are harmless. Because we are not. We are still a fucked up mad creatures, that be we real beings we would most likely be something equal to psychopaths and serial murderers in our minds. But the version you have here as nightmares, have individualism, meaning we can be reasoned with as long as we find common ground for negotiation.”
“Common ground?” Said Noah. “I know what common ground I have with you,” said Noah. There was no need to mention her crazy obsession with Ugy. A yandere characteristic she inherited from the story where she came from. “But what about her? What’s her deal? What would she ask for her help?” He pointed with his chin at the butterfly.
“No you look at it wrong. What I mean is that as long as we exist as small parts of our concept, we will retain this individuality and character. And to tell you the truth, the ones here right now all quite like this individualism. So we don’t wish to lose it. All of us have feelings, but the reason we have them is because we are sentient. That’s why we agreed to do the deal with Ugy in the first place. To keep our sanity. And so is she. She also wishes to stay sentient and agree to be reasonable as long as her craves get to be fulfilled.”
“Craves?”
“You remember what she was doing in the story she came from? The greatest crave she has is to fulfil fucked up wishes of crazed people. As long as she can do it she does not care about all that global bulshit of corrupting worlds.” Said Yuko. Noah felt that the craze in her eyes deepened even more.
“Wishes of crazy people such as you…” muttered Noah. So that’s how it was. This fucked up version of a djinn didn’t just help them out giving out Ugy’s secret out of good will. She was playing into Yuko’s craze to quench her crave to fulfil disturbing wishes.
For a moment Yuko sank into delusions, weakening her foot on Ugy’s boddy, that plush bear immediately used to get out of her clutches.
“Don’t trust them, User!” He screamed as he rolled away from spider's feet. “These mad bitches just want to corrupt and control you!”
Yuko immediately awakened, making an annoyed tsking voice, disappointed that she allowed him to get away, but did not move to catch him.
“Think it through. Yes, I did things without you knowing. But nothing that threatens you. On the contrary, it was for our mutual benefit. They, on the other hand, are dangerous.”
“I feel threatened enough by my system plotting behind me.” Noah said.
“Don’t make a rash decision at least. Yes, I wanted to enslave that bloodsucking bitch to be our guardian, because you would never bear to do it to your mates friend. Let's just say we had different views. You have your good fella way of doing things, I have mine. Yes, I acted on my own, you put a stop to it, alright. But we are still on the same side. These bitches…. “ Said Ugy, pointing at Yuko and the butterfly. “We can never be sure what side they are on. Think things through before you do anything so dangerous, user..”
“Hahaha.” Laughed Yuko. “Think things through? I see, so that you could strike some deal with her in the meantime?”
“Right now this idea is something he did not expect. He has no countermeasure. And as a djinn she is a being that is all about contracts. If you make a deal with her now, we can be sure she isn’t anyhow influenced by this plush ass. If you postpone, he may strike some other deal with her, behind your back.”
“Damn I wish I had popcorn right now.” Said the dog from the side, now watching things with full attention instead of pretending to be asleep.
Noah gazed at him with annoyance as the two argued at the side.
“What? This is better than any soap drama that I’ve seen.” The dog said.
“What’s a soap drama anyway?” Noah asked
“You do have dramas in your world, right?” The dog said.
“Yes. Theater dramas, of course.”
“Well it's similar but with lots of plot twists, usually where the second nephew is uncle of his mom kind of thing.”
“What?” Noah said, confused. “The fuck does that mean?”
“Nonsense plot. I know. It can be confusing. But let me add to it one more plot twist of my own. I will offer you a deal of my own. Just like the girl there said, this shed is a path the girl opened to find her kin in her world. A path she used to feel someone with a trace of the same concept. This path isn’t something you can block with your measly mind power. But I can guard it for you, making sure no other being tries it to infiltrate. By the way, there have already been a few attempts that I thwarted without you even knowing. In exchange you will not let anyone touch the piece of me that I left in your hands.”
“So that you could use that piece of yours for spying on me while plotting against me. After all, you wish to get it back when you gain enough strength.”
“Valid point. Let the djinn be a guarantor of our deal then. Djinn are spirit controllers of top degree. That’s why she is capable of making adjustments to your system on par or even better than that sentient system of yours. Changing reality on a spiritual level is their speciality afteral. They are top notch at it. Even I don’t stand a chance in that area against a djinn. Let's make her separate this piece of me entirely, making it an individual not connected to me. This way you can be sure that I don’t spy on you through it.”
“You would agree to tear it completely off?”
"I intend to take it back, but I face my enemies directly. Using dirty tactics isn’t for me. So until I come for it, I don’t mind it being in your care. All I want is a guarantee it is not fed to some other concept."
“Somehow you all seem very amiable today. Which makes me even more suspicious.” Said Noah.
“Amiable? HA! As if!” Ugy exclaimed, pointing his hand at the dog. “Listen, User, for our deal with him I needed a stronger piece of his concept, if we gained power equal to just Nosferatu it would be useless to dominate the Nosferatu Duchess. We needed her to perceive us as a higher being, as a monster on a whole other level of the same concept. But right now he is just a weakened piece of concept that has individuality. His all other parts that we may release are not that way. They are strong, mindless, corrupt and mad. And so the more part of the concept he gains the closer he would be to a mindless monster. But he does not wish to lose his individuality, so the deal was that he left a mindless piece of him in our care and scurry away to keep his sanity and individuality that he has now.”
“Hold on, Nosferatu is the highest form of Vampire concept isn’t it?” Said Noah.
The dog and plush bear threw a gaze at each other but kept silent.
“No, it's not.” Said Yuko. “There is still one more evolutionary step in the Vampire hierarchy above Nosferatu. That’s why that Cassandra woman is called Vampire Duchess.”
“So there can be a Queen or a King of Vampires?” Asked Noah.
“Something like that has not been seen in this world since the fall of Gorean empire of vampires, but yes. There is something like that. But anyways…” Said Ugy.
“And how strong that thing would be?” Asked Noah, interrupting him.
“Khem..” Coughed Ugy. “IF it is born, even the Saintess would not be able to withstand it alone. She would need the power of a whole party with the same level as her.”
“And there is no one with that much power. So let me get this straight, Ugy, right now he is Nosferatu. That is the peak of his power. But once he gains enough strength and comes for us to take back his second piece, he may gain the power of monstrosity that this world had not seen for a thousand years? Stronger even than the best guardian that humanity has right now.”
“If you intend to let him or any other Nosferatu consume you, yes, but this was not in my plan. If we enslave that Cassandra bitch and make her our protector, we don’t need to fret against other Vampires, because she is one of the strongest. And by the time this guy gains enough power to challenge her, I intend to make us strong enough to kill him, so what’s bad about this plan?”
“That you risk releasing a monster capable of destroying humanity entirely into this world?” Said Noah.
“If we die, why would we care what would happen to the world after that? We will be dead anyway.” Said Ugy, shrugging.
“You know what, Yuko. I do need a manager for my system.” Said Noah, raising his eyes to the spider woman.
“NO! Wait U…U …sSer..” Started to exclaim Ugy but his form started to shudder and become distorted in color."
“And it starts again. Another reason why you need a manager, Noah.” Said Yuko.
“What’s going on with him?” Noah asked, surprised.
“He is freezing up again. Must have been too excited to keep watch on the virus.
“A virus? Is he sick?” Asked Noah.
“Hmmm, kind of. It is not like your normal sickness, it's a harmful code that is working incorrectly making computers slow and laggy. I think he caught it after carelessly opening some link that he saw in the comment section. Doesn’t he know that opening random links is dangerous?
“This virus… code, how can we stop it? I need him back or my system skills do not respond to my commands.”
“Well…potentially I could stop it when it starts acting up if I had a manager's ability, but it would only solve symptoms, not the cause. This thing can hide among other codes to prevent being noticed. I am not a coder. I don’t know how to stop it entirely.” Said Yuko apologetically.
“I could do it.” The dog said with a smirk. “Or this piece of me that you have in your care. It could do it. Sniffing things out is a dog's job, isn’t it? If you agree to the deal I proposed, you can deal with this thing easily.”
Noah looked to the sky thinking it carefully.
“Oh, sister Tokka just said she also wants a deal.”
“What deal?” Asked Noah.
Yuko stood silently as if she was listening to something.
“She says if you are going to offer that dog a position of a guardian, she can also be of use. She can lessen the threats you face through the spirit world.”
“I have firewall that Ugy and Thessa made. Plus the evil dog. How is she of use?”
“She says that they are useful when you are already found in spirit world. What she can do is make your presence less noticeable, after all you are attracting too much attention right now throughout the spirit world.”
“What attention?” Said Noah surprised.
“Your powers resonate with many beings. Hmmm…”Said Yuko, raising her eyebrows. “Really?”
“What does she mean “resonate” with other beings?”
“She said your powers touch the concepts of different beings and so they can feel a presence of their kind. So far you have advertised the powers of Dragons, Demons and even Nadalososhii and some of them may feel interested enough to come find you, which would not be hard as things are now. In short words, she can give you anonymity. Thwart anyone who tries to find you.”
“Deal.” Said Noah. He did not even know he was attracting attention and of such creatures that people would be horrified by no less. So if she could prevent that attention he did not need to think much. Releasing her in exchange for her protection was a lesser evil in this case. Besides, he needed to release her anyway if he needed to make a deal with Yuko or the Dog. He basically got 3 deals for the price of one.
“Damn this is like some kind of sale. Buy 3, pay only 1” muttered Noah, feeling like he got hooked by the salesperson's advertisement.